First of all, can you explain the concept of "us", which is the starting point of your exhibition?

In fact my new exhibition is based on the idea of 'facing with ourselves' in its conceptual sense. As long as one faces with him/herself, then there is no need for shields, protections; therefore you do not have any soft spots that you need to hide or cover up. Contrary to that is being considered, wanting to stay unprotected-defenceless consciously is a sign of power and a good character. In addition to this, we are living in society, in which multiple fake personalities increase. We can't stay unprotected without really knowing ourselves or else we would be vulnerable. Most of us are obliged to live by postponing our individual awareness within the  life-sustaining and social cycles that is comes with today's life style. When I was choosing the name of the exhibition, I wanted to choose a frame that is connecting us rather than separating and  I wanted to refer to the mutual realities involving all of us through saying 'us'.

Your works in your previous exhibition have also clearly demonstrated the concept of 'me'.  How did that concept of 'me' turn into 'us'?

I searched the idea of self from its main context - I mean I separated it from its environment where it exits and researched by separating it to pieces. Now slowly I am in a place, where gather back the pieces I separated and examine the thing that I call 'me' in the environment it exists.
I have seen that the thing that I call 'me' doesn't have single but rather a multiple structure involving more than one sub and supra identities. The moment I made peace with and accepted my own identities, I have realized that I managed to accept people around me and their differences in a better way.  I started to percept that the thing what we call 'we' involves 'I' and what I call 'I' involves 'we'.  When you go deeper down to your self, the scope of what you call Us enlarges.

I think the basic reason of discriminations, which we live in the social sense, is the shallow descriptions about ourselves.

How did you associate the works in the exhibition with the concept of 'us?

Portraits I created based on the idea of confrontation are the works that I have made with the instinct to make these sub-identities, which I can't see, yet felt, visible. I thought if I can make this multiple situation in 'me' visible, I would be able to catch similarities with the other different identities and these different identities would also be able to associate with me. I also wanted to make the intertwine state of  Me and Us visible in this respect.

Looking at your work, what does the replacement of heads in the portraits with different animal heads mean symbolically?

In the world today, where the mind is glorified and became prominent, it is to remember and remind the instinctual existence of people as well; I think the acceptance of animals as important figures of mythological, totemic and spiritual world and Darwin's theory of evolution are important in the course of people knowing and finding themselves since they from reference. 

How did the development period of the exhibition form? 

Gaze video, which I prepared for auto-portrait exhibition in artSümer, became the starting point of 'Us' exhibition. In this video-performance work, in which I applied the issue of 'confrontation' and again used myself as a test subject, I transformed an inner process to an outer phenomena by recording one of my meditation session. This work became a symbolic expression of a long process and after this, I wanted to present what is found and this is how the portraits came out.

What kind of a route you are taking when you are producing your work? 

I seldom have a clear vision in my head. Before the vision, the feeling of what I want to do appears. I concentrate on this feeling and the works come out when I am trying to find the from, the body of this feeling. 

How long did you work for this exhibition process? 

I can say a year and a half with the research and production side of the exhibition. The first six months passed with the research and different experiments. The works slowly started to appear after finding a clue. 

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Have you taken intellectual support during your work for the exhibition?

I could have only asked, consult when some things started to appear. 

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Is there going to be a contextual association in the works you are planning to do after this exhibition? 

Since I put my art practice in the middle of my own life experiences, it is impossible not to have contextual connection; but since I prefer to examine my subject from different angles there can be differences in tone and material.

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Do you have any plans for after the exhibition?

Yes, I will take trip.

Burcu Gökçek's personal exhibition 'us' can be visited until 9th November in Artsümer.